Patch Notes

All Patch Notes

Please note that due to compression differences the Steam patch size may be larger than the standalone client patch size.

Greetings MechWarriors, and Happy Lunar New Year!

The Black Lanner is here! This is the second 55 Ton Clan 'Mech to join the game! It also gives players a second option when maxing out tonnage in Scouting mode which recently had its max tonnage raised from 50 to 55 tons. The Black Lanner content is also now available in-game.

The Standard versions of the Customer Rewards Program are coming to the Gift Store along with a refresh of the in-game Trial 'Mech selection. A new auto-ban system is in place to deter disruptive players and our latest tuning values to quirks, weapons, and skills. Finally some Bug Fixes and Improvements to round out this patch.

The Black Lanner also brings with it 3 new Colours for purchase with MC in-game. Early Adopters of a Black Lanner receive these colours for free.

Standard Versions of 2017 Customer Rewards Program Variants in the gift store

UrbanMech UM-R68

Griffin GRF-5M

Kit Fox KFX-G

Linebacker LBK-H

Victor VTR-9A1

Trial 'Mechs have been updated to the following Selection:

IS

Jenner JR7-F(C)

Griffin GRF-1S(C)

Catapult CPLT-A1(C)

Zeus ZEU-6T(C)

Panther PNT-10K(C)

Blackjack BJ-1(C)

Dragon DRG-5N(C)

King Crab KGC-000B(C)

Clan

Mist Lynx MLX-Prime(C)

Shadow Cat SHC-Prime(C)

Orion IIC ON1-IIC-A(C)

Warhawk WHK-C(C)

Arctic Cheetah ACH-Prime(C)

Stormcrow SCR-Prime(C)

Timber Wolf TBR-C(C)

Highlander IIC HGN-IIC-C(C)

Auto Ban System

New system implemented to auto-ban disruptive players

Rate of Heat Loss Quirks:

All Rate of Heat Loss quirks have been replaced with "Heat Dissipation" quirks.

Final Values of the Rate of Heat Loss quirks have been normalized dependent on engine availability.

- 13%

- Locust - all variants

- Urbanmech - all variants

- Piranha - all variants

- Mist Lynx - all variants

- Kit Fox - all variants

- Cougar - all variants

- 10%

- Commando - COM-2D

- Adder - all variants

- 7.5%

- Commando - COM-1B, COM-1D, COM-3A, COM-TDK

- Blackjack - BJ-1, BJ-1DC, BJ-2,BJ-3, BJ-A

- Vindicator - VND-1R, VND-1X

Rate of Heat Loss Design notes: It was brought to our attention that the previous "Rate of Heat Loss" quirk designed to offset the forced external heat sinks of lower engine capped 'Mechs was bugged and was not properly functioning. We have decided to shift these quirks over to the functional "Heat Dissipation" quirk in order to provide the intended boost to 'Mechs with a sub 250 engine class cap, while also consolidating the bonus into the same quirk provided by the skill tree. This means that the total bonus for both the native quirk plus skill tree investments is displayed as a singular value, and no longer tracking through two separate quirk entries.

As part of the shift from the non-functional "Rate of Heat Loss" to the functional "Heat Dissipation" enhancement, we have reviewed and normalized the enhancement to reach a common baseline dissipation rate for 'Mechs that are receiving this corrective enhancement.

Mobility Skill Tree:

Torso Speed Node:

- Increase the bonus value for Heavy and Assault Nodes to 4% per node (from 3.5% per node.)

Torso Speed Design Notes: We are increasing the benefit gained from torso speed skill nodes to be consistent with the bonus provided by Medium 'Mech nodes. While only a small enhancement at this time, we are closely observing the mobility tree for possible future changes.

Energy:

- ER Micro Laser

- Heat reduced to 1.5 (from 1.7)

- Micro Pulse Laser

- Heat reduced to 1.5 (from 1.7)

- Small Laser

- Heat reduced to 1.25 (from 1.5)

- Small Pulse Laser

- Heat reduced to 1.5 (from 1.7)

- C-ER Small Laser

- Cooldown increased to 3.5 (from 3.2)

- C-Small Pulse Laser

- Heat reduced to 2.2 (from 2.4)

- Heavy Small Laser

- Heat reduced to 4 (from 4.25) (this was previously noted as heat reduced to 4.25(from 4.5) due to a typo)

Energy Design Notes: Given the short engagement range with Small and Micro Lasers, we want to provide them with more sustainability once you do close the distance and are engaged at close range with the weapons. The one exception to this is the Clan ER Small Laser. This weapon historically functions more like an IS standard Medium Laser for half the tonnage instead of any direct comparison to the rest of the small laser family. While we are not going to remove this property of the weapon at this time, we will be bringing the cooldown of the weapon up to match the IS Standard Medium Laser.

Missiles:

- Streak Missiles (All launchers.)

- Increased the frequency of torso based locations being targeted by the streak missiles as opposed to arms and legs.

Streak Design notes: The previous location tracking on streaks saw them biasing Arm and Leg locations over torso based locations. This often resulted in Streaks being highly efficient at seeking out Leg based locations on lighter 'Mechs, often destroying Leg locations in only a handful of volleys, while on heavier 'Mechs the Arm and Leg Bias saw streaks often seek out locations that were rarely targeted through conventional means. This change is designed to level out the location-based distribution to be much more evenly distributed between the missiles seeking torso based locations as opposed to Arm and Leg based Locations. This will result in more fairly distributed damage for lighter 'Mechs reducing the number of missiles that seek out leg based locations while increasing the Streak Launchers utility against Heavier 'Mechs by seeing an increased frequency in which they will naturally target torso based locations.

- MRM 30

- Heat increased to 9.5 (from 9)

MRM Design notes: We feel that the combination of relative tonnage efficiency, natural heat, and ability to fire up to 60 damage volleys without penalty have skewed the 30's just a bit above the rest of the MRM line up. We are providing it with a 5% increase in heat to provide it with a bit more give and take when compared to alternative MRM launcher types.

Rifleman Design Notes: When it came to the RFL-3N and RFL-3C, we wanted to provide a slight boost to their ability to trade at range with their entire load-out provided the 'Mechs overall fragility as a ranged support 'Mech. Because the 5D already was provided with a range quirk that covered its entire load-out, we wanted to provide it with a slight boost to its PPC sustainability, while also consolidating its range quirk into a universal range quirk so that they are not tallied as two separate entries when factoring in any skill point investment into range boosts.

At this time, we feel the Legend Killer did not need any additional help provided its natural structure boosts, but we have decided to consolidate its separate Ballistic and Energy Cooldown quirks into a universal quirk so that they are not counted as separate entries in the enhancement list when factoring in any skill point investments into cooldown improvements.

Jagermech Design Notes. Like the Rifleman, we wanted to give a bit of a range boost to the Jagermech to play into its ranged support role. We have consolidated the range quirk in the A and the DD to be universal, while the S and Firebrand will be getting a new Universal Range quirk.

Thanatos:

- All variants: Torso Structure bonus' converted to Armor Bonus.

- Armor bonus value slightly increased from previous settings.

Thanatos Design Notes: We want to provide the Thanatos line with a slight boost to its overall survivability.

Victor:

- VTR-9B

- New Universal Weapon cooldown -10% quirk added

- Existing Ballistic cooldown -5% quirk removed

- VTR-9K

- New Universal Weapon cooldown -10% quirk added

- Existing Ballistic and Energy Cooldown -5% quirk removed.

Victor Design Notes: We wanted to provide a small boost to a pair of under-performing Victor Chassis to nudge them up when compared to alternative Victor Chassis'

Some minor logging improvements to track down some overflow messages on the server

Increased the buffer size for our client connections to reduce the number of dropped packets

NEW Optimized queries on the friends table to address some slowdown warnings for users with very large friend/block lists

These changes will have no discernible effecton the client, except that if they rarely get a mysterious "Unknown Failure" or another similar kind of error in the frontend, it should happen less often

Patch Files (Direct Download)

To make the patching process easier for players with limited download caps, we'll be providing direct download links for the patch file(s) that comprise this patch. This will allow you to download the patch file(s) elsewhere, for manual injection into the MWO patcher through a Patch Cache folder.

Aside from allowing you to download the patch file(s) elsewhere, on another connection, there are no additional benefits to performing the patch this way; the patching process itself will be the same.

This direct patch download process will only work for players running the standalone client. It does not apply to players running MWO through Steam.